Ninja - Ro(16),M(1),IB(5),Asn(8)
Description Rogue 16 / Monk 1 / Assassin 8 / Invisible blade 5 To claim the title of being a Ninja is not an easy one. In popular culture, Ninja have assumed an almost invincible status, using nothing more than reflexes to evade attacks and precision attacks that can quickly bring down even the mightiest foes. DnD has this element called "balance" that prevents you from rolling up an all powerful Ninja. The build I detail below is a poor approximation to whatever you may have conceived a Ninja to be (in no small part because everyone conceives Ninja to be something a bit different). The Ninja in this write up uses Stealth and Guile to outwit and strike her opponents at vulnerable spots (i.e. sneak attack), while using a combination of reflexes, insight and wisdom to achieve high Dodge AC. Pros: *12d6 + 6 bleeding damage Death Attack *Maxed Hide and Move with HiPS *Maxed Bluff and Feint Mastery. Bluff may be used in Campaigns as well. *Reasonably Good AC (Especially with Epic Gear) AND Epic Dodge, Str Fighters will have a very hard time hurting you. *High Reflex Save and improved evasion Cons: *High AC tends to be high Magic Reliant. It performs comparatively badly on low magic settings. *A lot of your AC is also lost if you are caught flat-footed, which can be achieved if your enemies use either by Feint or HiPS. *This is fundamantally a Rogue. If Rogues are fundamentally not viable in a particular setting for whatever reason, neither will this. *Medium BAB- without denying your opponent his dex bonus (via feinting or hiding) you have a much lower chance of actually hitting high AC targets. *No Able Learner: Have to Alternate between Assassin/Rogue and Invisiblade, creating "Last Level Syndrome", wherein you can only gain HiPS on the very last level. *No Combat Insight-relies almost entirely on enchantment or sneak attack for damage *Crappy Fort and Will Save, and no Slippery Mind (Going with Deep Gnome for spell resistance will help with this) Character Creation Race: Strongheart halfling, Lightfoot halfling, Tiefling or Deep gnome (Basically any race with a Dex bonus, and with Rogue as a Favored class. See Choice of Race for a brief comparision.) Alignment: Lawful Evil until level 2. Any Evil After that. *The Ninja needs to be Lawful at level 2 to qualify for Monk. After that she can shift alignment, as long as she remains evil to qualify for assassin. And because Bluff is your main convo skill, shifts to Chaotic are highly likely. Stats *There are 4 possible races for this build, and the stats above are for the Halflings. *For Tieflings, add +2 to Str, +2 to Int and -2 to Cha *For Deep Gnomes, add +2 to Wis, -4 to Cha *These changes do not affect your feat or levelling progression, which is dependent primarily on the Dex bonus instead. *If you don't need that many skill points, you can lower starting Int to 14, and raise starting Dex to 19, and Str to 9 (or 7 after the -2 Str penalty of Gnomes/Halflings). This means you don't have to take the Great Dexterity feat on level 27, and can take something else. See the Extra Epic Feats section for details. BAB: 23 HP: (16*6) + (1*8) + (8*6) + (5*6) + 60 con bonus= 242 Saves Fort: 5 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 10 +2 Con Will: 5 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 10 +2 Wis Reflex: 10 + 2 + 6 + 4 = 22 +8 Dex And Evasion AC *Naked AC: **10 base **8 Dex bonus **3 tumble **3 Invisiblade Unfettered defence **2 Monk Wis bonus *Sub-Total = 26 *Additional AC With Epic Gear (as found in MoTB): **10 Bracers of Mage Armor +10 **8 Deflection **5 Natural Armor Amulet +5 **5 Boots of the sun soul +5 (UMD) **4 Dex Bonus (with +8 Dex equipment) **4 Monk Wis bonus (with +8 wis equipment) **2 Invisiblade Unfettered defence (with +4 int gear) *Sub-Total = 38 *Total = 64 Overview Feats Character Feats Feats 1. Two-Weapon Fighting 3. Weapon Finesse 6. Combat Expertise 9. Feint 12. Weapon Focus: Dagger 15. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting 18. Blind Fight 21. Epic Precision 23. Epic Prowess 25. Expose Weakness 27. Great Dexterity 29. Epic Dodge Rogue Bonus Feats: 10. Crippling strike 13. Improved evasion 16. Defensive roll *The Feat progresson above assume that you are using the Lightfoot halfling, Tiefling or Deep gnome. *If you are using the Strongheart halfling, you gain an extra Feat at level 1. You can spend this feat immediately on level 1, and gain: **Luck of Heroes: For +1 to AC and all saves. **Able Learner: This lets you take Assassin 8 as soon as possible (by level 13 earliest), and provides HiPS as early as possible. It may help your Ninja survive long enough to reach high levels, but once you are there, it won't be as useful. *Alternatively, you can shift the above Feat progression backwards. as follows: **1. Two-Weapon Fighting **1. Combat Expertise **3. Weapon Finesse **6. Feint **9. Weapon Focus: Dagger **12. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting **15. Blind Fight **18. Feat of Choice ** **21. Epic Precision **23. Epic Prowess **25. Expose Weakness **27. Great Dexterity **29. Epic Dodge *This grants you 1 extra feat at level 18, which you can put into a feat of your choice. Possibilities include: **Greater Two-Weapon Fighting: You gain a 3rd off hand attack, but at -10 penalty. **Skill Focus Bluff: To make your Feint better. **Stealthy: To improve your HiPS. **Toughness: Extra HP always helps. Skills Base Skill Points: *Rogue 1st level (4*8) *Rogue 15 more levels(15*8) *Monk 1 level (1*4) *Assassin 8 levels(8*4) *Invisible Blade 5 levels (5*4) Total = 208 ~enough to max out 6.3 skills There are 6 Core Skills you should aim to max out: *Tumble *UMD *Hide *Move silently *Spot *Bluff 16 Int grants you 3 more skills: Campaign Skills: *Search *Disable device *Open lock PvP Skills: *Listen *Set trap *One of Choice (Two of Choice, if Tiefling) Remember You do not have Able Learner, so only raise your selected skills, when they are class skills of the class you are taking (the letters are highlighted blue). Notes on PvP Skills *Listen: Although you have maxed out Spot, it is less effective against stealthy Rangers and Druids who can use Camouflage/Mass Camouflage to boost their Hide score to undetactable levels. In such cases, Listen is the only reliable means of detecting them. *Set trap: This is one of the cheapest PvP tactics around. Basically, you can set 50 holy traps up in one location, and try and lure your foe over to it, and he will die immediately (without a save) when he triggers all of them at once. *Asides from these 2, you have space for one more skill of choice: **Sleight of hand: This may seem like an unusual choice for PvP. However, it has been found that PvP fighters like to disarm you and pick up your weapon rendering you unarmed. Even when unarmed, the Ninja is not necessarily helpless, since she has a level in Monk and Improved Unarmed Strike. However, she will not be able to use her 2 weapon fighting feats, and dish out more attacks. Sleight of Hand lets you pickpocket the Fighters to get your weapons back. **Craft trap: If there are very few traps available, or if they are rather expensive, you may decide to craft these traps yourself. Maxing out Craft Traps helps you make those 50 Deadly Holy Traps. **Search and Disable device: If you go with Tiefling (and a starting Int Score of 18), you can max out these 2 skills, then you can attempt to find and remove the traps that your enemies set for you. But it is also a good party PvM skill set to have, so that you can get rid of Traps during Dungeon crawls. Extra Epic Feats *If you don't need the extra Skill points, you can lower Int from 16 to 14 (or 18 to 16 if you include the Tiefling Int bonus), and raise starting Dex to 19, and starting Str to 9 (or 7, after the Gnome/Halfling Str penalty). This means you don't need Great Dex at level 27, and can take something else **Combat Insight is recommended, as that lets you use your relatively high Int bonus to determine melee damage in place of your low Str score. It in effect grants you +4 damage per hit. **Armor Skin grants +1 to AC. Choice of Race Strongheart halfling: Pros: *Small size provides +1 to Hit and +1 Size AC *+4 to hide and +2 to move silently *Bonus Feat at level 1, refer to Overview to see how you might use this feat. Cons: *-2 to Strength hurts especially at the start. Ensure you have companions (in Campaigns) or friends (on PWs) to help you gain flanking bonuses for sneak attack, as it is pretty much the only way that you can do decent damage. *Poor Strength combined with weight reduction for small size means you won't be carrying very much at all. Again, ensure that you have companions/friends to be your packmule. Lightfoot halfling: Pros: *Small size provides +1 to Hit and +1 Size AC *+4 to hide and +2 to move silently *+1 to all saves Cons: *+1 to all saves is a poor choice compared to the Bonus feat that the Strongheart Halfling gets which can be spent on Luck of Heroes for greater advantage. *-2 to Strength hurts especially at the start. As with the Strongheart halfling, ensure you have companions (in Campaigns) or friends (on PWs) to help you gain flanking bonuses for sneak attack, as it is pretty much the only way that you can do decent damage. *Poor Strength combined with weight reduction for small size means you won't be carrying very much at all. Again, ensure that you have companions/friends to be your packmule. Tiefling: Pros: *The only race among the 3 that is Medium size and that can use Kamas as small weapons, for Flurry of Blows with Weapon Finesse. *The only one with no strength penalty, and no 3/4 weight limit reduction, means that this can carry the most loot of the 3. That said, with a strength of only 8, its still not a lot. *Bonus to Int ensure ample Skill points. **For PvP, this lets him max out 2 skills of choice, and he can gun for both Search and Disable (see Skills) **The extra Int also works better than the others on low magic settings with limited Int Boosting gear (as then the +5 AC cap of unfettered Defense is less likely be reached.) **If you don't want want the extra skill points, you can lower your starting Int and gain a bonus Epic feat, as decribed in the Extra Epic Feats section. Cons: *1 LA is painful but not as bad the Deep Gnome. *Medium size also means no to-hit or Size AC bonus, no hide bonus. Deep gnome Pros: *Small size provides +1 to Hit and +1 Size AC *+4 to hide (But not move silently. This is not as bad as it sounds as most PvP builds max Spot to protect against Feint while leaving listen at low levels, so a Hide bonus tends to be more important.) *Innate Spell Resistance helps with your low low saves. *Bonus to Wis effectively provides another +1 to dodge AC *Another +4 AC from slippery defense will render you almost untouchable Cons: *3 LA is very very painful *-2 to Strength hurts especially at the start. As with the Strongheart halfling, ensure you have companions (in Campaigns) or friends (on PWs) to help you gain flanking bonuses for sneak attack, as it is pretty much the only way that you can do decent damage. *Poor Strength combined with weight reduction for small size means you won't be carrying very much at all. Again, ensure that you have companions/friends to be your packmule. Character Progression Levelling Notes *It is actually very hard to alter the levelling plan prescribed above. If you have the Strongheart Halfling bonus feat, you can shift the feat progression upwards, and qualify for Invisible blade levels from level 13 onwards. **You need to have Rogue 16 by level 28 to qualify for Epic Dodge on 29. **Invisible blade levels have to be alternated with Rogue or Assassin levels, as the Invisible blade does not have many of the class skills that Rogue/Assassins do, and you don't have able learner to make up for it. **It is generally recommended to take Assassin and Invisible Blade levels as early as possible. This is because Rogue provides too many skill points for you to assign at a given level. You need the relatively lower skill points of the other 2 classes to 'buy' you some breathing space *Leveling plan would be better to go 5 Rogue, 8 Assassin, 11 Rogue, Invisible Blade 5 then Monk Final Level. A tiefling is the best option for this build, starting with 19 Dex and a lower Charisma (due to Dex and Int bonuses). Trading blind fight with greater two weapon fighting and trading Greater Dex +1 for perfect two weapon fighting.This makes the build much easier to play and by far more effective* Category:Character builds Category:Dual Wielding Character builds Category:Power Builds